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Background: Updating a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) can ensure its validity and practcality, whereas the status quo among CPGs, in most of the cases, does meet the expectation.

Objectives: To investigate the updating status, methods and procedures for CPGs in China published between 2013-2015.

Methods: We searched WanFang Data, VIP, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) using the term 'guideline' in the title, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) using 'guideline' as the topic word from January 2013 to December 2015. Then we screened and analysed all included papers by two independent researchers.

Results: A total of 204 Chinese CPGs were included. Sixty-nine (34%) CPGs have been updated, among which the average update period was 5.3 (range 1~11) years. Seventeen (8%) guidelines had been updated more than once. Tweenty-nine (14%) CPGs indicated that guidelines will be updated, and 23 (12%) simply reported the methods: 19 (82%) will update according to new evidence, two (9%) will depend on the new evidence and feedbacks, and two (9%) will base on new evidence and clinical experience. Only one guideline indicated that it was updated every two to four years, whereas others did not mention when to update.

Conclusions: The update rate of Chinese CPGs was low, and the update period was comparatively long with great diﬀerence among different guidelines. For updating plans, only few reported their methods.